Your Highness, Please Love Me Tender

139. Zhou Zaiyue’s Memory (1)

Translator: Flying Lines

Su Jie’s situation did not get better even after resting for a whole day. The toxins of Heartbroken spread, torturing him to the extreme.

On the third night of him being poisoned, Su Jie felt so painful that he couldn’t fall asleep until dawn.

On the fourth day, Su Jie was mentally exhausted and lost all desire for food. The only thing he wanted to do was lying on bed.

On the fifth day, Su Jie fainted and looked ghastly pale after waking up. Zhu Ce was overwhelmed with worry, constantly muttering why Elder Zhou hadn’t come back yet. However, Zhou Zaiyue wasn’t seen back even when Zhu Ce’s lips chapped due to worry.

On the sixth day, Su Jie had a fever. He felt that someone was pouring some astringent medicine soup into his mouth, and Su Jie vomited it directly, muttering, ‘Get lost’.

“Your highness, please forgive me for coming back so late.” Zhou Zaiyue took the bowl, muttering something like ‘forgive my impudence’, grabbed Su Jie’s nose and asked Zhu Ce to pour the medicine soup into Su Jie’s mouth.

Zhu Ce’s hand trembled a little.

Although he was always confident, calm and composed in the battlefield, Zhu Ce would rather be a well-behaved person than do such an unrespectful thing to the crown prince.

“What are you hesitating about?” Zhou Zaiyue asked with a frown, dissatisfied.

Zhu Ce gnashed his teeth and forced the medicine soup down Su Jie’s throat.

Su Jie was nearly choked to death by the potion, and worse, Zhu Ce accidentally poured some of the medicine soup on Su Jie’s face.

Su Jie became a little sober. He couldn’t help laughing when seeing Zhu Ce put on a long face, “Are you trying to murder me?”

“Zhu Ce dares not.” The young scholar, who was always casual and at ease on the battlefield, was at a loss, holding a bowl in his hand with a sad face and knitted eyebrows. Seeing the medicine stain on Su Jie’s face and clothes, Zhu Ce’s face turned pale, so scared that he didn’t know what to do.

“Get the handkerchief and clean it up for his highness.” Seeing Su Jie waking up, Zhou Zaiyue held Su Jie up and ordered to Zhu Ce.

“Oh! Yes!” Zhu Ce seemed to have lost his ability to think. After all, to Zhu Ce, the imperial family was noble, but now he had poured medicine soup to his highness’s face… Was his crime pardonable?

Zhu Ce looked worried, wiping the medicine soup on Su Jie’s face in a rather rigid manner while trembling and thinking to himself. ‘I touched his highness’s face and … the golden flower too.’

“Help His Highness to take a medicated bath.” Seeing Zhu Ce was still there, doing nothing, Zhou Zaiyue could not help but feel displeased.

This scholar looked rather smart and sharp-witted before, why was he so dull now? Had he been through something hard?

Zhu Ce supported Su Jie, feeling complicated in his heart. He was holding the handsome young man, the crown prince, he was skinny, and had a faint fragrance of sandalwood around him. Out of extreme nervousness, Zhu Ce broke out into a sweat, feeling like he was supporting a hot potato.

“You seem to be shaking?” Su Jie looked at Zhu Ce. His handsome face was pale, and the color of his lips was faint, which made people’s heart ache for him.

Zhu Ce collected himself and said, “No, your highness, you… are shaking.”

“Oh.” Su Jie nodded and smiled helplessly, not dwelling on this matter. He went into the bucket with his robe on. Although he felt uncomfortable with his wet clothes, the pain on his body lessened a lot.

“Elder Zhou, I’ve troubled you again.” Su Jie was still a little muddle-headed, but he didn’t forget to thank Elder Zhou.

“Your Highness, don’t mention it. It’s my fault to come back so late and made you suffer so much.” Zhou Zaiyue showed a trace of guilt on his face. He blamed himself for being anxious to leave, which landed him in the trap set by Lan Buhui’s sixteen guards. Luckily, Lan Buhui’s sixteen guards underestimated Elder Zhou’s power, which allowed him to escape safely.

Zhou Zaiyue didn’t tell Su Jie about that, which would only make his highness worry for nothing.

However, after thinking for a while, Zhou Zaiyue still had something to talk to Su Jie alone, so he had to think of an excuse to let Zhu Ce leave.

“Zhu Ce, you just spilled his highness’s medicine soup. Go and ask the chicken to cook another bowl. You have to personally supervise the process as no mistake is allowed.”

“Yes.” Zhu Ce nodded in all seriousness.

After Zhu Ce left, Su Jie untied his robes in the water. Although the pain had not completely disappeared, his physical strength had already recovered. He came out of the barrel, took off his clothes, then went back into the barrel.

“Your highness…”

“What’s wrong?” Su Jie was not in a good state and asked as he tried his best to conquer his sleepiness.

“Do you remember that back when we were still in State YanHui, you asked why I chose to stay in State YanHui?”

“Yes, I do.” Su Jie nodded.

Zhou Zaiyue once mentioned that he had stayed in the Mount Mengqi of State YanHui for several years in an attempt to find the missing crown prince.

But how did Zhou Zaiyue know that Su Jie was in State YanHui?

When Lan BuHui started his mutation, Zhou Zaiyue was travelling around countries as an emissary. It was impossible for him to know where Su Shuche and Jin Zheng would take Su Jie.

“Actually, after the late Emperor sent me out, the official historian beside His Highness suddenly offered to join me. His name is Chun Yuzi. Chun Yuzi became rather dispirited after His Majesty rejected his offer. And the matter was forgotten after the morning court session was over.”

Zhou Zaiyue’s voice was a little old. He showed great admiration from the bottom of his heart when speaking of Chun Yuzi, but that was mixed with other complicated emotions. In his eyes were some pity mixed with reminiscence.

Chun Yuzi was the person who had changed Zhou Zaiyue’s life.

“At that time, I got everything ready and galloped all the way to the frontier. When I got to the southeast of State YanLing, Chun Yuzi caught up with me. He said he slipped out of the imperial city.”

Zhou Zaiyue smiled, but with something bitter in it.

“At that time, Chun Yuzi was only thirty-four years old, and he was the youngest official historian in the history of State YanLing. After he met me in the southeast, I angrily scolded him for disobeying the emperor’s order. And I also said that I would have someone arrest him. But Chun Yuzi just looked at me and smiled, shaking the fan in his hand in a graceful manner. Chun Yuzi was rather good-looking, the most good-looking man in State YanLing to be exact.”

After that, Zhou Zaiyue coughed awkwardly. He had wanted to get right to the point, but he didn’t expect that he would say a lot nonsense.

Zhou Zaiyue continued to tell his story.

Chun Yuzi was thirty-four years old and Zhou Zaiyue forty-four at that time.

After scolding Chun Yuzi, Zhou Zaiyue felt regretful for his harsh words.

However, what Chun Yuzi said next made Zhou Zaiyue angrier.

“The emperor dies when the purple Qi weakens, and the imperial city falls in blood!” Once he said those in a casual manner, Zhou Zaiyue almost fainted in anger.

“What did you say?”

“I said that  State Yanling is about to fall. You are lucky to go abroad this time and survive this disaster.” Chun Yuzi said in a casual tone of voice.

At that time, Zhou Zaiyue was already in his forties, and he was usually very composed. But this matter concerned the emperor, which Zhou Zaiyue couldn’t tolerate. He could not suppress his anger and went up to beat Chun Yuzi.

Chun Yuzi, however, just smiled, his eyebrows slightly raised, with a hint of teasing.

Zhou Zaiyue’s rage suddenly appeased.

The beauty is loved by all. Chun Yuzi had this good-looking face and was wearing a bright smile. Zhou Zaiyue didn’t have the heart to slap him.